Manbij beggars Under the microscope… Stories of war fantasy

Aso – Ahmed Damlakhy

Pale faces and worn clothes, and begging voice closer to cry, asking you to sympathize and compassionate to their situation, using the various kinds of words that are most influential in yourself, so that you can feel sorry and put your hand in your pocket and get out of it some Syrian pounds and give them, to hear the calls of good and success and others on your ears, to reply Amen “in a loud or in the depth of yourself.

Begging is not a new phenomenon, but the new is the quality of beggars and the way they work so that many have made it a profession with their own rules and places. They are no longer limited to the needy of the elderly, women and children. A large group of young people are also spread on the streets to beg.

In the city of Manbij, which is considered a stable city compared to many Syrian cities, it is witnessing the density of beggars.

“The city has witnessed many changes,” said Abu Usama, a resident from Manbij. “The city has seen many displaced people coming from different provinces. Today, we are also seeing a density in beggars. This is due to the conditions of Syria in general, which needs to be checked by the local authorities.”

Aso News Network correspondent, who traveled through Manbij markets, continued to communicate with many beggars, most of whom refused talking and filming. Photographs with children and women were sensitive. Oral meetings were held with beggars to discuss their circumstances and reasons of begging .

Fatima, who hasn’t passed 10-year-old stands in one of the neighborhoods of Manbij, told Aso news network that she and her family are living a difficult reality. “Because of the war, she moved from her city to Manbij about four years ago to look for work. At the beginning her father worked in the city, when the situation got worst, he decided to travel to Turkey to work there (it was the last time to see him … and she has not heard about him since then). ”

Absence of her father made her to take the responsibility of her family

The absence of Fatima’s father imposed on her the responsibility of helping her family , while breeding up her three sisters to grow up. “During the first year of my father’s absence we resisted by the help of neighbors and residents in the neighborhood, but this aid was stopped because of the battles to liberate the city. Every family was looking at its concerns,” Fatima said. ”

After liberation, my mother and I did not find any way to survive, the days were hard, no food or drink, no one knocked on our door. “Fatima” understands the meaning of what she says as she took responsibility for securing her family’s livelihood at this age and says. “After liberation and after the interruption of the roads and because my age is not allowed to work and my mother’s disease from torment on the absence of my father and the waiting of my sisters every day when we return to carry food or drink or clothing, forced me and my mother to beg to secure our lives.”

Fatima and her mother travel long distances every day to secure a few SYP to provide the house, but Fatima says there are shopkeepers in Manbij and other people who provide material and finance assistance to them.

“You may look at me with pity, but there are a lot of people looking at us with contempt,” Fatima sighs, continuing her conversation as if she were talking to a grown-up, not a child at Fatima’s age.

“It is not my fault that I live in a family torn apart by the circumstances of the war. After my father’s loss, we have no support. I hear many people say to us that we are money owners, or (we are not satisfied), but if I have enough money to live with, I wouldn’t endure Insults and words that cut my soul like a knife. ”

Fatima’s wish is to grow up and be able to work to help her family and completes “When I work, I will leave this muddy swamp that I have covered with innumerable people in my country and not just here.”

She works instead of her disabled husband to support the family

Umm Tayseer, who carries her child and has not completed one year, roams the markets and asks passersby and the people of the shops to give charity, even a small amount of their zakaah. Some of them may give her some money but she will hear harsh words and others silently help her to secure the requirements of her home and her disabled husband and bear these difficulties.

Um Tayseer was a cleaning worker in the homes of many women in Manbij. “I was loved and I was helped and rewarded for my work.” “but after the liberation of Manbij and the change of the city circumstances she isn’t able to work in the houses anymore,” says Umm Tayseer, ” no one is asking me to work anymore because I am from the area of Safira, in the countryside of Aleppo, a region that has been associated with the name of ISIS so much. After the liberation of Manbij, I was held accountable because I am from the Safira.”

“Umm Tayseer” repeats the phrase “I do not have anything to do with ISIS” repeating the word, trying to convince everyone around her that the reason of being from Safira is not enough to be a charge against me (…)! “It is true that the organization exploited the people of Safira to inflict harm on the people, this is a reality, but not all the people of Safira are satisfied with the organization in the first place.”
“My husband was injured as a result of his fall while working in construction. He became enabled. We received aid from civil organizations once, but it wasn’t enough. Today the less prescription requires 10,000 Syrian pounds.”

I did not get the help so I had to beg..

Umm Tayseer sought work but did not receive help. “I had to bring my child and start begging so that I could take care of my family. I went out early in the morning and came back in the afternoon. Then I took a second tour after an hour break or more.”

“There are those who describe me as using my child to beg and try to get the sympathetic of people, but this is not done by any mother. He is my only child, if it backs to me I would have made him over my head, not only in my bosom, my family is everything in this life.”
Begging appeared heavily after the war

“Abu Mohammed” works in an exchange shop in the covered market re-intensifies the phenomenon of begging among women to the post-war period in Syria and follows the crisis and its continuation “In the past begging was limited to a specific group of people in Manbij (meaning gypsies present in the tents on the outskirts of the city ), and today find a large number of beggars in the markets and streets, they give the words of prayer and please among the passers-by and shopkeepers where people were at the beginning helping them, but the presence of people made this phenomenon a profession to make many people reluctant to help”.

Abu Mohammed does not deny the necessity of helping people in need, but he describes it as a “disaster.” He explains that simply giving a beggar a small amount will bring you a large number of them, especially women. “So he sometimes used a nervous tone to keep them away from the place of my work, which being stopped my sometimes, when they are there, and I was affected by robberies during the congestion despite my caution, beggars were the first suspects in these robberies.”

“There are a lot of beggars who do not need it, and the use of children in begging has a negative impact on the people before the visitors. It is an uncivilized status and evidence of exploitation,” Abu Mohammed continues his speech that the authorities should follow up this phenomenon.

Officials in the city are following the phenomenon but have they found solutions!

“Abeer Al Barho” is a deputy in the Committee for Social Affairs and Labor in Manbij. A member of the Committee on the phenomenon of begging. “We at the Social Affairs and Labor Committee in Manbij toured the city’s markets and asked the women who begged to go to the Social Affairs and Labor Committee to register their names in order to secure jobs for them in various fields.”

Abeer added that “the spread of begging and exploitation of children made them coordinate with the Internal Committee and internal security forces to monitor and know the background of beggars from women, investigate their financial situation and search if there are beggars out of need.” These will be held accountable, especially those who use children, ” when It is clear that she needs to work, we take the address of her home or place of residence and provide humanitarian organizations that care for the poor and confirm them to help permanently.”

Al-Barho considers that the steps taken by the Committee for Social Affairs and Labor are not entirely therapeutic. Ending the phenomenon requires the interdependence of efforts between the local authorities and the people to reduce this phenomenon. If all the beggars in the city are in need, This proves the lack of support and securing the simple life supplies to a large number of parents, even if those take begging as a profession is evidence of lack of awareness as well.

Solutions to reduce the phenomenon.

The Committee of Affairs presented a plan to the Executive Council in the city based on the opening of vocational training centers for women, in order to provide vocational training and literacy for women who begs in the market, and discussed the situation of beggars with the Education Committee to put them in schools.

A part of the war circumstances, Al Barho backs the begging phenomenon to the ignorance and lack of self-trust and says the woman who trust herself is in need of not to depend on the peoples aids to her, “Women should look for other solutions in terms of securing the necessities of life. Today they are like men”.

From Abeer’s point of view, society is also a major cause of the spread of begging among women. “If women were left to learn and work, they would not beg the people today. Science is an effective force in changing circumstances, no matter how harsh.”

The phenomenon of begging in Syria is widespread in general after the crisis. You may often find beggars who are honest and in need and you may see some beggars who exploit people to attract the sympathy of people. This is a social circumstance that needs to be considered by administrations and society together.